House Harkonnen
Briefadel House Major Harkonnen *Dignity: Barony *Sigil: Griffin *Colors: Blue and White, Red *Homeworld: Giedi Prime *Full Title: Baron of the Briefadel House Major Harkonnen, Siridar Giedi Prime, Lehnsherr Lankiveil, Khediv Arrakis *Final Holder (d.10,193): Baron Feyd-Rautha Rabban Harkonnen History The Harkonnens claim common descent from the final Byzantine Emperors of Old Earth with the Corrino Line, but the first recorded instance of the name is Ural Harkonne, of Prima Hyadum, who rose to become to Ubos of all the Labor Guilds of the poor but heavily populated Hyades Cluster during the Butlerian Jihad, when the renewed need for human labor made them wealthy and powerful. One of his sons, and Ural Harkonne had many sons, Abulurd took his father's position in the increasingly feudal universe of the late and post-Jihad. Abulurd supported the protective hegemony of the Sardaukar as an alternative to the older, established houses of the Landsraad. When the Sardaukar and the Landsraad came to blows, Abulurd threw his lot in with the Sardaukar and his resources and the size of his armies earned him the de facto rank of "Bashar" in Shah Arsham's armies. Fighting in the Battle of Corrin, Abulurd's Hyadeans were in where the fighting was heaviest. Unwilling to sacrifice the whole of his fleet in a battle that wasn't his own, Abulurd withdrew to minimize casualties. It was, to him, the rational thing to do. But he had not accounted for the bloody-minded warrior ethos of the Sardaukar, who were trained not to fear death. With the newly-dubbed Corrino line in power, the Bashar who's forces had been exposed by Harkonne's withdrawal, Memnon Atreides, accused him of cowardice, a crime that Arsham I convicted him of. In the new feudal universe of the Corrino, honor had value, something that had not been true for thousands of years. Abulurd Harkonne died in exile. Abulurd's nephew, Kiril the Harkonnen, took the reigns of the family businesses, getting back to the labor business, this time in the form of slaves. As slavers, they rose to prominence, slowly elevating themselves from the Merchant class to the Richece, as one of the central Houses Minor under the House Naraj, even to the rank of Siridar-Regent of Tarahell, under the flag of the Goat. Rautha Harkonnen, a direct-line descendant of Abulurd Harkonnen, returned from the fringes of the Empire and reasserted the direct line's primacy over the Kirilids in what was be called "the Rauthan Restoration", breaking ties with the Naraj and allying with the now-extinct House Amal, the Griffin of the Abulurids eclipsing the Kirilid Goat. Rautha's son Rurik Harkonnen was the first to gain the status of House Major, originally as Siridar-Baron of Algedi. Without access to the vast Naraj slave markets, the House Harkonnen remained a truly minor House Major. Their fortunes improved somewhat when Baron Ivar Harkonnen managed to mortgage Algedi to purchase a fresh planet, the forested Giedi Prime, from the Spacing Guild. It wasn't until his son, Yndrias Harkonnen, came to control the planet Lankiveil by way of a skillful marriage to the Minor House Rabban, that the Harkonnens began their rise to power, mostly by way of ruthless business practices, rampant industrialization and manipulating the market for the whale fur from Lankiveil. This rise culminated in Grigori Harkonnen's betrayal of his in-laws, the House Raetus to steal the profitable contract to Arrakis from them in 10,111 AG. Grigori's son Vladimir succeeded in seemingly-destroying the hated rivals in House Atreides in 10,191 AG. His victory was incomplete and the na-Duke Paul Atreides, who would become Imperial-Regent, survived the massacre on Arrakis, gathered an army of fremen and in 10,193, rose up to capture the spice trade and force the abdication of the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. In many ways, it could be argued that the Harkonnens created the impetus for the rise of Muad'Dib. The House was wiped out by the Imperial Regent Paul Muad'Dib Atreides early in his reign, 10,193 AG. Description Category:Great House Category:Harkonnen Category:Giedi Prime Category:Lankiveil Category:Fallen Category:Baron Category:Briefadel